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In Search of the Bengal Famine of 1943

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In Search of the Bengal Famine of 1943 The Newsletter | No.78 | Autumn 2017 The Review | 25 In Search of the Bengal Famine of 1943 Mukherjee treated the famine in a continuum, where The Bengal famine of 1943 remains a relatively unexplored topic of the modern Indian history. it was preceded by malnutrition and succeeded by debilitation and disease. And thus he did not limit himself Despite the insightful and thought-provoking works on the Bengal famine by Amartya Sen to one particular year, i.e. 1943, but traces the history of the Bengal famine before and after this period as well. (Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement & Deprivation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981) Inspired by the works of James Scott (Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Resistance, New Haven, CT: Yale University and Paul Greenough (Prosperity & Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1943-1944, Oxford: Oxford Press, 1985) and Ranajit Guha (Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India, Durham, NC: Duke University University Press, 1982), both of which were incidentally published in the early eighties, the famine Press, 1983) on everyday forms of resistance, Mukherjee forcefully argued that the victims of the Bengal famine did has not been understood in its totality. The teleological nationalist history writing of India has not ‘die without a murmur’, but in fact, they contested the famine at every stage (p. 12). He provides us an insightful exclusively focused, as Janam Mukherjee rightly notes, ‘on the nationalist struggle, negotiations for a account of the Second World War as it proceeded in South Asia, particularly in the colonial Bengal; the British efforts transfer of power, the manoeuvring of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League and/or to save Calcutta, while exposing the countryside to the Japanese invasion and also making the villagers starve, with the rise of communal rancor’ (p.2). Mukherjee in this work provides a disturbing, yet riveting account the so-called ‘denial scheme’. Mukherjee also exposes the ‘benevolent’ nature of colonial rule, by giving the account of the Bengal famine of 1943, which was, as he aptly pointed out, not limited to the year 1943. of the activities of the colonial officials and their ‘priorities’ in tackling the famine and dealing with wartime shortages. Reviewer: Shubhneet Kaushik, Jawaharlal Nehru University Japanese invasion, air raid damages and the riots of 1946 (followed by the Muslim League’s call for Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946) were aptly dealt with in this book. Linking the Calcutta riot and famine, Mukherjee argued Reviewed title: during the period of the famine and the war, some powerful that the Calcutta riots ‘ha[d] to be read from within the Janam Mukherjee. 2015. capitalists made fortunes and even influenced the negotia- context of cumulative violence that began with chronic, Hungry Bengal War, Famine tions for independence. Though the policies of the colonial multi-generational poverty, was compounded by war, and and the End of Empire rulers were to a large extent responsible for the making brought to a catastrophic head in devastating famine’ Hurst & Company of the Bengal famine, the nationalist leadership was also (p. 254). This book also draws our attention towards the ISBN 9781849044318 guilty. Although it is true that most of the Congress leaders persistence of famine and starvation in the post-colonial were behind bars during 1942-1944, when finally out of India. The Indian state has failed miserably in addressing the prison, rather than tackling the issue of the Bengal famine problem of malnutrition, hunger, starvation, and famine. in careful and sensitive manner, the nationalist leadership As far as sources are concerned, Mukherjee relies heavily was quite busy negotiating the transfer of power, with on the official sources like the famine reports, department the colonial rule. He also draws our attention towards the files (including Home, Political, Economic and Overseas fact that the leaders of both the Congress and the Muslim Department), private papers (e.g., Jadunath Sarkar and HE DECLARES IN THE INTRODUCTION of the book that his League had close socio-economic and political relationship Nanavati Papers) and the unavoidable volumes of the Transfer objective is to demonstrate ‘the deep and abiding impacts with the industrialist class of Calcutta, which further led of Power. Overreliance on the official sources to tell the story that both war and famine had on the course of events in them to overlook the problem of the Bengal famine. of the Bengal famine is also the major weakness of this India on the verge of independence’. And to a large extent, Mukherjee rightly noted that as the end days of the Empire book. Though in the bibliography, he mentioned more than he succeeded in fulfilling his objective. He gave us a detailed was within sight, ‘the national leadership circled around a dozen interviews he had taken, he had not incorporated picture of the politico-economic and socio-psychological the pie of independence, failing even to notice that … the these interviews in his narrative of the Bengal famine. conditions which prevailed before and after the Bengal fam- population in Bengal were beginning to starve’ (p. 252). Though Mukherjee talked briefly about the persistence ine of 1943. While analysing the historical events that led to In the post-colonial India, severe repression of the Tebhaga of the famine and continuity of it from the colonial to the famine, and understanding the socio-political milieu of movement (which was led by the sharecroppers) by the post-colonial, he neglects the role that the memory of the the late colonial Bengal, Mukherjee also explores the struc- Indian state, also shows clearly that which class had the victims, remembrance of the families affected by the famine tures of power and gave the Bengal famine its due centrality sympathy of national leadership with it, all the while. played in structuring, shaping, articulating and configuring in the history of the 20th-century India. He emphasised that The Bengal famine was also the direct consequence of the experiences and memories of the famine and starvation. famine has to be understood as a complex form of human the ‘denial policy’ of the British government. It essentially Also, he mentioned about the artists and activists violence. In this context, Sen in his critically acclaimed work means, to confiscate all surplus stocks of rice in the vulner- associated with the Indian People’s Theatre Association only on the famines, Poverty and Famines, noted that starvation able coastal districts of Bengal, so that an invading Japanese at the end of the book, and that too inadequately. Though essentially means that people do not have enough food to army could not feed its troops with locally confiscated the book began with a quotation of Somnath Hore, it is eat and it is not related to the unavailability of food. In Sen’s stocks. And to worsen the situation further, more than a pity, that the artists like Chittoprasad, Somnath Hore, own words, ‘Famine imply starvation, but not vice versa. 40.000 boats have been destroyed fearing the Japanese Gopen Roy, Ramkinkar, Atul Bose and Zainul Abedin were And starvation implies poverty, but not vice versa.’ invasion, thus ruining the essential water transport system just mentioned in passing. And their works and the Indian Mukherjee argued in this book that the history of the of Bengal. And the ongoing war, hoarding of the middle People’s Theatre Association’s theatrical presentation Bengal famine is also the history of power and disempower- classes, extortionary intermediaries and the callous attitude and songs on the famine were completely ignored in this ment. Exploding the myths around the Bengal famine, of the Indian society towards the problem of famine further otherwise insightful and detailed narrative of the Bengal Mukherjee shows with great mastery over details, how made the situation very grim. famine of 1943. divide the ASEAN members on the South China Sea This book offers few new arguments. First, besides issue and economically weak countries like Cambodia China, United States is also responsible for the existing serve the interests of the giant neighbour in doing so. divisions within ASEAN as it often indulges itself in the great The territorial disputes involving Cambodia on the one power rivalries in the region leaving little options for the hand and other ASEAN members on the other hand smaller Southeast Asian countries except to be either with further instigate Phnom Penh to accept China’s regional the United States or with China. The role of the United actions, even at the cost of a disintegrated ASEAN. Alica States in the great power game in the region however Kizekova and Alfred Gerstl pointed out that ASEAN follows could have been expounded in a more comprehensive the path of multitrack diplomacy and engaging China way. Second, in their co-authored chapter on Preah Vihear, with the regional institutionalism initiatives to avoid Richard Turcsanyi and Zdenek Kriz mentioned that ASEAN further escalation of tensions in the region. Truong – countries are coming closer to each other against China. Minh Vu and Jorg Thiele analyse Vietnam’s (and to some While this logic sounds stimulating and optimistic, the extent, Philippines’) responses to the South China Sea author needs to put more efforts to clarify the reasons crisis through multidimensional ways including making behind this particular thinking. Third, Padraig Lysaght, in friends in the region (including Japan and India), taking his chapter, noted that the South China Sea disputes have the issue to the international forum (such as Permanent almost become an anarchical situation, thanks to the roles Court of Arbitration), provoking popular mandate against played by the great powers. However, to add more value China domestically and using strategic restraint by to the chapter, the author could have studied the role of ASEAN’s responses to it, perceptions and behaviour of Above: One of the encouraging joint development initiatives.
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